The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-09-17

) he next difficulty encountered by a
vessel will be the outlying ice packs i;
and much has been said on this, while
considering the relative merits of steam
and sails. The commander has now be-
fore him two general routes,1 one of
| which is to keep well out to sea-, if the
breadth of the channel will permit; and
the other is to hug the shore-line. This
point seems to be pretty well settled at
this hour, and IN favor of iDshore navl-
CATION when in the vicinity Office. Con-
hrmed to greater or less extent by
BarentZ, Hudson, Baffin, the two
ROSES, and others, including the
whalers constantly visiting these chimes,
it was reserved for Sir Edward Parry to
bring the matter in such prominent
light before the public as to provoke
the most bitter discussion, and revive
all previous experience, on the subject,
with the above result. Returning from
his first voyage, he says, "Our ex-
perince, think, has clearly shown, that
the navigation of the polar seas can
never be performed with any degree of
certainty, without continuity of land.
1t was only by watching the occasional
openings between the ice and the shore,
that our late progress to the westward
was effected; and, had the land con-
tiDued in the desired direction, there
can be no question that we should have
continued TO advance, however slowly,
toward the completion of our enter
prise" In his second voyage he reiter-
stes substantially the same opinion.
So necessary was the )ntinuity of land
considered by the British admiralty
after Parry's deduction, that several ex
petitions were by them fitted out to ex-
plore the arctic coast-line of the Amer
lean continent, in order to more intel
ligently direct vessel through the
Northwest Passage in conformity with
this idea. One of The greatest advan-
tages of coast-water navigation over
that more remote, even when the latter
is possible, is the assurance OF winter
harbor, should the young ice form so
rapidly as to prevent farther naviga-
ton, "a not unusual circumstance in
these regions, where the change of
season is short and decisive, Another
advantage is in the fact, that if the
body of water in which the vessel is
cruising be of considerable extent, and
ploughed by ocean-currents, the Ice
well out to sea does not become fixed
nor solidly frozen during even the
severest winters and vessel thus en-
bay ed is at the mercy of the grinding
ice-packs caused by the winds and cur
rents at time when. even if she were
the intense cold of that season
would make it rigidly impossible to
her; and, in fact, liberia
ton under these circumstances would
be the very last thing to be desired.
The 1egetthOf and Jeanette in their
drifts, were thus partially fortunate,
suffering from constant dread |
of Liberation; and Franklin's ships had
the advantage that Victoria Channel,
which, it seems, they at
to take the middle course, |
is suffcientlynarrow to freeze from shore |
to shore, and prevent the miseries of |
winters drift. Sir George Back, in the |
Terror drifting through Fox Channel |
and Hudson strait in the winter OF 1885, |
81, did not fare so well; and his terrible |
unable to house his vessel in |
any banks, which were constantly torn |
from his ships sides by the ceaseless
of the icehelds as fast as |
made, and many times forced, daring |
heavy gales, to hastily abandon his |
ship, with scanty supply of clothing |
and food, in the arctic winter night. ex-
pecting the crushing of his vessel IN the
whirling, upheaying ice-tloes, show |
plainly the great extent of misery and |
sufferings which crew may be called |
upon to bear when not safely harbored |
.or the winter.
Another consideration on iashore
navigation l will give in the words of |
is author, Lieutenant Payer, who !
says
"a strip of open water, which re-
treats before the growth of the lsnd-ice
only in winter, forms itself along coasts, |
and especially under the lee of those eX.
posed to marine currents running par
ai!el to them and this coast-Water does |
not arise from the thawing of the ice |
through the great heat of the land, but |
from the lands being an immOvable !
barrier against the wind, and therefore |
against ice currents. The Inconsistency |
Of the wind, however, may battle all the |
,alcul atoms of navigation; for Goa t.
water, open as far as the eye can reach,
NAV be filed with ice in a short time by |
a change of wind. Land-i often re-
mains on the coast, even during sum
mer; and in this case there is nothing
TO be done but 10 find the open nav
gable water between the extreme edge |
1f the fasJ-ice and the:drift-ice. Should
the drift become pack-ice, the moment |
must be awaited when winds setting in
rom the land carry on the masses OF
ice blocking the navigation, and open
passage free from ice, or at least only
partially covered with drift-ice."
FROM all the above, it is evident that |
navigation in coast-waters must be |
slow and gradual, although it has al
WAYS been attended with the greatest |
advan tages. Inshore navigation is not |
without its hinderances, however, and |
is this the case where the |
water near the coast is very shallow; !
and this could be remedied only by /
light-draught vessel, which has the
that such vessel cannot |
conform to the build already indicated. |
This is especially the case on the polar
shores of the mainland of America,
Asia, and most of Europe, while in the
and waters north of them the
land rises higher. the navigable waters
approach mere closely to the shore, and |
progress forward becomes more easily |
assured. Also in coast-water cruising, |
a vessel forced upon the shore by the
pack, backed by heavy gale.
is in a more precarious state than one
simply grounded or lifted upon an ice
fed.
A ship once fairly beset, and strongly
held during a gals, is completely be
cd No r0al 0nnH s,Qn no |